Life and Death is the most fundamental binary of continuity; it is the single most significant duality of beginning and ending; it is the vital axis of human existence and of every being or object that emerges within the universe of our knowledge and is granted the possibility of dying. It is the physical and philosophical phenomenon of light and darkness. For humankind, it remains the most essential paradox of an inexplicable dualism, standing above all other enigmatic questions. For the painter Faton Kryeziu, Life and Death represents the reality that everything with a beginning also has an end.

Around this binary as a phenomenon of life—one that embraces both humans and objects for a determined period within a fluid space—countless literary, cinematic, and artistic works have been created. Death and Life as a comprehensive title was first published in 1961. It is the name of the book by American-Canadian writer Jane Jacobs (1916–2006), which takes the form of a critical analysis of urban planning policies in major American cities during the 1950s in the United States.

The Death and Life of John F. Donovan is a Canadian dramatic film from 2018, directed by Xavier Dolan (1989). Its narrative unfolds in three distinct sequences with interwoven scenes, exploring themes of celebrity, tabloid media in Hollywood, mother-son relationships, and homosexuality.

Death and Life (Tod und Leben), painted between 1908 and 1915, is one of the most renowned works by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt (1862–1918). A modern painting with allegorical content and executed in the Art Nouveau style, Klimt depicted life’s proximity to the passage of time and death as moments of intense pleasure or sublime beauty, embodied in the radiance of youth. This work is housed and exhibited at the Leopold Museum in Vienna.

In the present day, in April 2025, Life and Death is the title of an exhibition by Kosovar-Albanian artist Faton Kryeziu (1979). It comprises 30 paintings, distributed and organized across multiple segments that balance both individual figuration and elements conditioned to remain actively engaged with the exhibition’s thematic intent.

Life and Death, this all-encompassing phenomenon, has long been one of the artist’s figurative pursuits. Through the act of painting, he has gradually constructed the essence of this binary. The exhibition’s core is the existential journey of humankind and the land of its origin—first shaped by life and death as an existence conditioned by political circumstances, which, at different historical moments, have generated genocide and extermination, and then, inevitably, by the natural cycle of life itself.

Faton Kryeziu is an artist of a generation that enjoys his nation’s independence. He has cultivated his imagination and painted dozens of large-scale, two-dimensional canvases that do not narrate figurative proximity or provide descriptive content regarding this phenomenon. He does not approach Life and Death through their inherent opposition, nor does he focus on their physical union. Instead, the artist constructs thematic situations that express the anticipations preceding the evolution of this binary. While colors and contrasts inherently convey the interplay of light and darkness across vast spaces dominated by landscapes, Kryeziu chooses to depict this phenomenon through a newly cultivated sense of tranquility, discovered and deeply rooted in his own consciousness.

Life and Death is articulated through a series of titled paintings that form cycles, giving the exhibition its cohesive structure and making its essence comprehensible—the inescapable existence of this binary as both a lived and philosophical reality. Painting, with its primary medium of imagery, serves as the foundation of this exhibition, which is built upon cyclical tableaux representing “death,” including Burned Land, portraying vast natural expanses consumed by fire, perishing, yet signaling the anticipation of rebirth. The painting In Burned Land conveys the persistence of life, an indestructible embryo that survives even in the deepest darkness. Run on Burned Land, alongside the canvas Man of Earth, draws attention to the inevitable interplay between good and evil, light and darkness, and the cyclical replacement of their roles in our universe.

This unceasing circular exchange is instinctively reflected in the artist’s creative psyche. He is exhilarated by the flourishing of spring and joyfully unsettled by the emotional resonance of his imagination when painting works such as Red Spring, Red Rose, Red Land, or The Kiss.

The paintings Field, Tower, Mrizi i Zanave, and Gjirokastra embody “life,” belonging to the first cycle of the exhibition, juxtaposed with the cycle that contrasts color in light against color in darkness. These works present emblematic subjects, bearing titles that cast a spotlight onto clearly legible symbolic objects. A literary reading of their imagery reveals that the artist seeks to evoke an emotional response to the history and geography of the Albanian-speaking world—beginning with the wholeness of its land, experienced through the towers of the highlanders, meditated upon in the ancient epic traditions, and culminating in the magnificent stone city of Gjirokastra, echoing its medieval heritage.

“The greatest wonder is man,” wrote Sophocles (497–406 BCE), one of the three towering figures of Greek tragedy. The portrayal of extraordinary individuals has profoundly captivated Faton Kryeziu, who, in his creative process, demonstrates an exceptional ability to capture the essence, psychology, and likeness of his chosen subjects. Three portrait-based paintings form the final cycle of this exhibition: a portrait of Kosovo’s modern painter Nysret Salihamixhiqi (1931–2011), with a preference for primitivism and surrealism; a portrait of the esteemed Albanian writer, politician, and academic Ismail Kadare (1936–2024); and a self-portrait of the artist himself, Faton Kryeziu.

Within the context of this exhibition, these three portraits are not passive; they are not displayed as mere technical exercises, nor as a conventional showcase of artistic ability. Instead, they serve to fully realize the exhibition’s core concept: Life and Death.

The meaning of the life-death duality has been defined by humankind itself, which stands above all other questions—both enigmatic and known. It is humans who move and reveal these questions. People, in truth, know what exists on this side of life, but they do not know what lies beyond death—and they never will. The presence of these three portraits aims to emphasize that the artist’s self-portrait is there to bear witness to life, while the portraits of these distinguished figures are there to affirm that, beyond their physical absence, their existence persists in the lives of the living, in the artist’s world, in a life that does not cease.

The atmosphere of the exhibition unfolds as a vast image in which, beyond the revelation of cycles, the significance of the title, the subjects, and the themes, one discovers that Faton Kryeziu is an artist focused on color—an element through which his pictorial thought and visual tension generate both subjects and textures. In the execution and creative process, he is in constant pursuit of something new, with ever-evolving imagery. He seeks to infuse movement and vitality into every new composition. The tension within his figurative language arises from his expressiveness, his visual legibility, and his captivating, surprising, and deeply emotive approach.